In April 2013, the seaward expansion of the Port of Rotterdam has become operational through the completion of the Design and Build work and the start of the Maintenance work. This “Maasvlakte 2” project creates around 2,000 hectares of new port area. This area is protected with an approximately 11-kilometer sea defense, constructed in marine waters up to 18 meters deep. In February 2008, this DBM contract was awarded to PUMA, a project joint venture between Boskalis and Van Oord. During the tender phase, starting in January 2006, the design of the winning DBM bid was prepared by PUMA’s engineering team, in which various required experts were embedded, e.g. ranging from hydro-morphology to constructability. After the contract award, the design was further optimized and subsequently built following integral quality control. This paper provides a retrospective on hydro-morphological prediction issues, dealing with integral design, construction preparation and construction support. Here, PUMA’s hydro-morphological engineers made use of a flexible, tried & tested model package (FINEL2D). In the design phase this modelling tool was used for a.o. fast design selection and optimization of the sea defense. During the preparation and construction of the sand and stone works, this tool was used for forecasting tidal flow and sedimentation issues with regards to work planning. The selected two outlined cases illustrate the beneficial aspects of embedding hydro-morphological experts and their tried & tested modelling tools in the key engineering team throughout the project, from start of tendering till completion of such D&B work.